The 'new' crossing of Sunshine Skyway was born, not only to replace the previous crossings and improve the regional economy but also with increased clearances and with new criteria to resist the impact forces of any aberrant marine traffic. For the first time in the United States, a bridge has been protected from shore to shore against ship impact - approaches as well as the main span. This paper discusses the process by which this shore-to-shore protection is being achieved. The paper focusses on the low level approaches, the area where ship impact protection is apparently unprecedented, forcing the designers to develop new concepts.